= Сообщение: 10129 из 12491 ===================================== ENET.SYSOP = От : Michiel van der Vlist 2:280/5555 30 Dec 20 12:47:41 Кому : David Rance 30 Dec 20 12:47:41 Тема : Brexit FGHI : area://ENET.SYSOP?msgid=2:280/5555+5fec6ba1 На : area://ENET.SYSOP?msgid=2:203/2+5feba640 = Кодировка сообщения определена как: CP850 ================================== Ответ: area://ENET.SYSOP?msgid=2:203/2+5feca022 ============================================================================== Hello David,
On Tuesday December 29 2020 22:57, you wrote to me:
MvdV>> Not so long ago French was the language of Post and MvdV>> telecommunication.
DR> Not so long ago, French was the language of the upper classes. The DR> reason that English has a vocabulary of around twice as many words as DR> other languages is because we have two words for most things, one DR> descended from French and the other from the Germanic languages. Our DR> "posh" words are from French.
French was also the language of the elite in The Netherlands. But not to the extent that we have two words for most things. There are plenty of leftovers though. "souterain" and "toilet" come to mind. But it works both ways. Many people thinks that "boulevard" comes from French. But it is actually of Dutch origin: "bolwerk". The French mangled that into "Boulevard" and as such it came back into Dutch. "Bolwerk" also made it into English: "bulwark".
MvdV>> GSM originally stands for "Groupe Speciale Mobile".
DR> Oh, I thought it stood for "Guildhall School of Music"
Or "Grote Stille Meren". Yes, that happens with acronyms. They often have many meanings.
DR> Or "grams per square metre" (as in weight of paper).
or "Groene Spercibonen Mix".
MvdV>> And of course Latin was the language of the academic world.
DR> And of the church.
Of some of them. Not the langiage of the protestants. Not here in The Netherlands anyway.
